The 1980s. Today’s Beginnings? explores the 1980s from six European perspectives, examining the relevance of this transformative decade for today. The project includes artworks, music, TV, graphic, and archival materials that were produced during moments of state structures in transition. Culture was central in responding to or predicting these shifts, highlighting the reorientation that took place between civil society and the state. As Europe is in the midst of a defining transition in terms of how it sees itself and its relationship to others, it feels urgent to examine key moments in identity formation and self-organisation from the recent past.

The material presented draws from projects carried out by partners of the museum confederation L’Internationale alongside research undertaken by the Van Abbemuseum.

Different European perspectives
The project gives space to multiple narratives and voices, beginning on April 16 with three presentations:

Talking Back. Counter Culture in the Netherlands
Presenting Dutch counter culture through the squatters’ movement and its cultural spin-offs who used video, sound, and photography to subvert mass media’s manipulative patterns of representation.

Thinking Back. A Montage of Black Art in Britain
In 1980s Britain, a powerful conversation emerged amongst black artists and thinkers. The presentation includes key artworks, films, and archives from this pivotal moment when ideas of resistance, expression, and identity formation coalesced.

NSK: From Kapital to Capital. An Event in the Final Decade of Yugoslavia
Presenting the events of the different Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) collectives, with a focus on Laibach, IRWIN, and Scipion Nasice Sisters, highlighting their fundamental goal to construct a new artistic constellation.

The presentation of NSK lasts until June 26 and from July 2 three new presentations will be added:

Video-Nou/Servei de Video Comunitari: Video-intervention in the Spanish Transition
Presents the pioneering collective project by Video-Nou/Servei de Video Comunitari who documented social changes and initiated activist TV stations, as Spain transitioned into a democracy following the death of Franco.

Archivo Queer? Screwing the System (Madrid 1989–95)
An open archive including documentation of queer movements when the AIDS crisis was a pandemic. The projects subvert hetero-centric and patriarchal forms of categorisation.